Album Review: Sound Architects – In Time Of Need

My first acquaintance with Sound Architects, was on the post-rock compilation Open Arms Vol. II – Side B. Their performance on this album off course made me wanna listen to their full album In Time Of Need. I gave Sound Architects 5 stars for the performance of the song Amihan. So? can the rest of the album live up to that. We’ll see.

In Time Of Need opens exactly with the song Amihan, a convincing post-rock/doom tune, and I like it just as much as the first time I listened to it.

The next song Seismos is offering the same brutalism in it’s opening chords as Amihan, it’s devastating and it’s eclectic. But this is by no means the definition of the song. After a short while, the listener is lulled in to a warm, yet rich quiet part. Just to boast into an even more grandiose and wide heavy guitar piece. A huge sound.

Then we have Icarus. A welcome break, with hypnotising guitar, slowly building up, just to be attacked by a fierce off beat doom/stoner riff. This shows off Sound Architects from a new angle. I really enjoy how they mix this kind of stoner riffs into their post-rock. Everthing ends with a faint echo of the opening guitars.

Dark Dissonant Jazz

With Omens, Sound Architects opens yet another aspect of their sound, almost jazzy drums, accompanied with beautiful deep guitar swells and keys, it’s very dark, glooming yet beautiful. Please keep going 🙂 . It almost sounds like something that could have been taken out of Yo La Tonga’s masterpiece ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out’. It’s off course way more dark, but it has some of the same warmth and room to it. I highly enjoy this song, that really gives a nice break in between the other songs. Omens just keep on pulsating it’s drone aura to hypnotise the listener, all the way to then end, before ending in an echoing abyss.

1972 starts with drop tuned doomy guitars and prickling, glinting and again hypnotising guitars on top. It’s slow and heavy, but with a somewhat positive tone. It’s slowly building , but you can feel a dangerous mastodon of a massivenes lurking around the corner. As the song approaches the abyss the Omens, left us in, the guitars gets more and more noisy and dissonant. And then after 7 and a half minutes, the misanthropic apocalypse starts. Insisting repetetive wall of sound guitars, with a brutal staccato leads 1972 towards is finale. An unexpected finale as the song really just ends in the same depressive dark abyss that it took its form from. An awesome song.

The Finale

So far In Time Of Need , the album has been one tumultuous journey of emotions, and we’re left off with the finale Mabaya.

Mabaya slowly envelops the listener into a captors cocoon. Again with the hypnotising repetitive guitars and the off beat rhythms. It’s just goosebumps all over. When the song really kicks in it’s an obvious finale. The listener is finally released from the strong grasp of Sound Architects, but only for a short while, before cacaphonic dissonant sounds sucks the listener right back to their nest.

With In Time Of Need, Sound Architects have given birth to a roaring, beautiful, mind blowing monster of an album. This album is for sure one of my favourites of 2017.

In Time Of Need

From start to end, the listener is guided through the vast territories of Sound Architects universe, a universe that holds both the misanthropic depths and the ethereal beauties.

What really makes this album stand out for me is the versatility that Sound Architects show off. During these 6 songs, the change thoughtfully between genres, but still maintains a red thread. Specially when they are courageous enough to include a song like Omens on the album. I love it.

Another key quality of In Time Of Need is the repetitiveness that embrace most of the songs, it’s very hypnotising and effectful.

You should really do yourself a favour and take a listen to the full album here. I would really have loved if there was a vinyl of this release, but sadly not.